MADRAVENSPEAK
“Consider this. What if all life on earth could go extinct because of man-made climate change?” — “Last Hours” documentary
There is little, these days, that brings state power in line with the best interests of the public or the planet. Those in power devour Koch money for breakfast and deliver destruction of the planet all day long. Concentrated corporate and special-interest power monetize what was sacred, and have taken over governments, including our own, cannibalizing the planet to exhaustion. This trajectory is accelerating such that this may be the last century of life on this planet. Each of the five former known extinctions eradicated more than half of life on earth. Several of them involved global warming.
Everyone should watch Thom Hartmann’s short “Last Hours“, a preamble to a documentary in the works, covering the projections of how climate change will likely play out. Rather than a…
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Exposing the Big Game 
The Anthropocene Extinction: Man versus Aliens
Man: Maybe the ugliest, most predatory creature in the universe (!?). We have movies about aliens and predators like Independence Day (movie) aliens. They are us. Impact of man: millions sharks a year, for their fins and sport, 1 in 3 species threatened or endangered, around 2.5 % true wilderness left in the continental USA! Genocide of human and nonhuman animals, sterilization of the earth, debating the last 2.5% for exploitation or not! For those of us who care we must be on the alert and take action over and over to protect wildlife refuges, wilderness areas, wildlife, national forests and parks. Else, the march of civilization, development, recreational destruction and intrusion (euphemism is multiuse), extraction industries (oil, gas, coal, minerals, lumber), effects of global warming, those who do not care, self centered and provincial attitudes and values, and over population (7 billion now, maybe 10 billion by middle of century or sooner) will destroy it all. The way we produce food (animal farming) is inefficient, terrible for the planet, and terrible for our health, and not sustainable. We raise grass and grains to feed animals to eat the animas, instead of raising vegetation to feed ourselves. Ranching is one of the most polluting activities of man and gobbles up more and more land, cuts down forests and jungles, encroaches more and more on wildlife and wilderness and it is not sustainable. Our sports killing of wildlife and the resultant farming of sport killing target animals and marginalization or elimination of predators is distorting wilderness ecology and biodiversity. Many sportsmen say they want the meat but the wilderness cannot support “subsistence” killing and only limited sports killing. Then the “sportsmen” are going more and more crazy with killing contests, trophy hunting, canned hunting, baiting, less and less of a “fair chase” ethic with jihad on predators and use of high tech equipment. Silencers and drones have been proposed, electronic calls are already used, use of dogs, use of live bait as well.
We have more and more of a distribution of wealth problem with the top 1% of the USA having 40 % of the wealth and 25% of the income; and about 80 individuals in the world having over half of the world’s wealth. Sooner or later this is likely to result in conflict between countries and classes.
We are depleting resources, destroying the planet, encroaching on wildlife and habitat in the March of Civilization and have from the beginning. We either change or we are and the primary cause of the next great extinction, including humans.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature list percentages of threatened or endangered species (with lower and upper estimates) for each group are: cycads 63% (63-64%); amphibians 41% (30-56%); reef-forming corals 33% (27-44%); sharks & rays 33% (17-64%); freshwater crabs 31% (16-65%); conifers 30% (29-33%); mammals 25% (21-36%); groupers 17% (12-43%); birds 13% (12.5-13%); wrasses 5% (4-19%); lobsters <1% (0-35%).
A steady climb in greenhouse gases has been plotted and studied by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and other organizations. Graphs show a sudden and continuing climb of greenhouse gases since the Industrial Revolution (late 1700’s), and especially since the 1970’s. Greenhouse gases trap heat in the atmosphere warming the earth. Man’s activities and industry appear to be the major factors in global warming. Thirteen of the past fifteen have been the warmest on record.
Man and the Earth: See “The Day The Earth Stood Still” with Keanu Reeves, protecting the Earth from man. If we could step back from Earth and look at it from the Dawn of Civilization, it would look like a disease is sweeping around it: Us humans. Our USA forebears marched across this land killing everything in sight; it is the culture we inherited. Yes, we need Acts like EPA, ESA, and all the conservation organizations we have to protect us against ourselves and in the USA protect us from the Tea Party, Republicans in general and many democrats, and many red state legislatures. We have not been invaded by zombies, but we have been invaded by political crazies and ignorant who want to keep going in the same destructive directions. Politicians generally are not leading in environmental protection but pandering to their constituencies and short-term, shortsighted economics, greed, and corporate pressures. To protect our planet we need to be more aware of our politicians’ actions and values.
References:
http://www.nbcnews.com/science/science-news/poll-religion-trumps-belief-big-bang-theory-most-americans-n85806
https://exposingthebiggame.wordpress.com/2014/03/22/the-meat-industry-could-be-driving-wildlife-extinct/
http://thoughtsfromthewildside.blogspot.com/2014/03/killing-wolves-hunter-led-war-against.html?m=1
https://exposingthebiggame.wordpress.com/2014/03/17/what-killed-off-the-giant-beasts-climate-change-or-man/
https://exposingthebiggame.wordpress.com/2014/03/16/nasa-backed-study-says-humanity-is-pretty-much-screwed/
http://www.eutimes.net/2010/06/human-race-will-be-extinct-within-100-years-claims-leading-scientist/
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/science/global-warming/140228/global-warming-greenland-Jakobshavn-glacier-sea-level
http://missoulian.com/news/opinion/mailbag/global-warming-glacial-ice-affects-sea-level/article_0596ce28-9e2b-11e3-bc08-0019bb2963f4.html
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_science/~3/MDSt0mxf4mU/131122103853.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&cad=rja&ved=0CDsQFjAB&url=http%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FInstrumental_temperature_record&ei=3p1UUfamM-OjigLZlIGgBA&usg=AFQjCNHgyLQbjeyFfLD5tvxUkfJzxY84LA&sig2=gd5KbzviDdMnZG82dJih_g&bvm=bv.44442042,d.cGE
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&ved=0CDUQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.politifact.com%2Ftruth-o-meter%2Fstatements%2F2013%2Ffeb%2F15%2Fbarack-obama%2Fbarack-obama-says-12-hottest-years-record-have-com%2F&ei=BKJUUbTQJYzuigKB_YG4Aw&usg=AFQjCNHIPQOu7d-uvoH1cb_9oS5RlRrYcw&sig2=TN6Sn-hD6u9SXbnkzyg40Q&bvm=bv.44442042,d.cGE
http://www.google.com/url?url=http://www.politifact.com/punditfact/statements/2014/mar/17/patrick-moore/climate-change-skeptic-patrick-moore-says-earth-ha/&rct=j&frm=1&q=&esrc=s&sa=U&ei=cujLU73eL4rroATX24C4Dw&ved=0CCgQFjAD&sig2=YgjGabGnp_4pbMs3BV7WHA&usg=AFQjCNGhRubN7jkw4m3bvj6tnwCojn5zxQ
http://www.google.com/url?url=http://wattsupwiththat.com/2014/04/05/no-global-warming-for-17-years-8-months/&rct=j&frm=1&q=&esrc=s&sa=U&ei=cujLU73eL4rroATX24C4Dw&ved=0CBQQFjAA&sig2=0baC_4Kkjh9LfOsjTtlrBw&usg=AFQjCNHe5wHonkzB-RYmSS2v2nHN6LKP9Q
http://www.google.com/url?url=http://www.skepticalscience.com/no-warming-in-16-years.htm&rct=j&frm=1&q=&esrc=s&sa=U&ei=cujLU73eL4rroATX24C4Dw&ved=0CC8QFjAE&sig2=BBmDcMdU032nT_XtoxpmUw&usg=AFQjCNEeruEUB2YDVxbyh8-MXeWM2jnOGw
http://billingsgazette.com/news/opinion/mailbag/there-has-been-no-global-warming/article
Thanks again for the comments and links Roger.
The Anthropocene extinction, it is denial, also ignorance and indifference and thinking errors. Most people are unaware and/or do not care that humans kill around 27 million animals daily for consumption. Many “religious” people see themselves as sentient beings and animals as not and themselves as created in the image of God and animals as not. They are “stewards of the land” and of the fishes and the animals. Animals to them are for consumption and recreational killing opportunities. Most people are very self-centered thinkers, concerned only with their families, what’s for dinner, what is on the agenda for the weekend. They are generally low information voters, not all their fault though because the news media is generally low information providers. The dollar rules so much of what humans do and we rationalize what we want to do in the name of making a buck. We humans are an earth disease in that we are animal farming, encroaching on the remnants of wilderness and wildlife, all in an unsustainable way as we destroy wildlife on land and sea, have most flora and fauna threatened or endangered and pollute the environment and continue to increase our own populations to the seams of the earth. Humans do not seem to be able to help themselves or the other animals of the earth as the March of Civilization is marching all toward the Anthropocene extinction. It is not an abstract occurrence in the far off distant future. It is happening right now.
Excellent post and comments Roger. BTW, have you ever read this NY Times piece? http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/11/10/learning-how-to-die-in-the-anthropocene/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0